24 January 2011: The Chair of “Freunde der Bonner Konvention” (Friends of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS)), German actor and film producer Hannes Jaenicke, has been awarded the NatureLife Environment Prize 2011.

The prize was presented to Jaenicke by German environment foundation Umweltstiftung Nature Life for his commitment to saving endangered species and his role in trying to preserve the world’s last refuges of migratory and other threatened animal species and prevent further unsustainable exploitation, including through a series of documentaries on orangutans, polar bears, sharks and gorillas. Migratory sharks and gorillas are the subject of global conservation instruments under the Convention.

Friends of CMS is a German-based non-profit organization set up in 2005 to raise funds for conservation and sustainable development projects which support the Convention’s aims. Jaenicke became Chair in 2010. [CMS Press Release]